Game-Favored Gender: Difference between revisions

** Even more so with the Chosen, who of course are the chosen warriors of their god, in this case Tzeentch. So why the hell would a genderless ever-changing cloud of color (not color gas or something, just color) care about gender?

** Especially annoying in that Chosen and Marauders at least have definitely been female at times in the background material. (It's rare, but does happen; and considering they're allowing Male sorcerers... ). Slayers are iffier as female dwarves in ''Warhammer'' have likely never been given the spotlight. Since the game avoids the [[Breast Plate]] trope, it probably didn't seem worth it for a class with complete armor coverage.

** Though Mystery of the Emblem and its remake go the opposite route with the Lady Sword. It's female-only, and it's a ''major'' [[Disk One Nuke]]. (Especially in the original, where it did [[For Massive Damage|massive damage]] to Thieves and Bandits, which made up about 90% of the early-game enemies.)

* In ''A Tale in the Desert'', there was an announcement that an NPC would show up on a certain day with rare goods, including some unique goods. Players lined up to trade with him, but when a female character tried to trade with him, he told her that he does not trade with "property" and inquired if she herself is for sale. Since there is no combat in ''A Tale in the Desert'', some players just started dropping piles of sand to lag out the NPC. The whole thing calmed down when the developers apologised.

* This was one of the main criticisms of ''[[Left Behind]]: Eternal Forces'', although it's very much in keeping with the values of [[Writer on Board|the books]] and [[The Fundamentalist|their writers]]. In the game, you can "convert" members of either sex to your cause and give them an occupation. While male characters can become Builders, Soldiers, Medics, Disciples, and Musicians, women characters can only become Medics (though not as effectively as males) and Musicians (more effectively than males, but not a [[Spoony Bard|particularly useful class]]). This meant the best strategy was to convert as many males as soon as possible, and only convert females when there was no other option. Later patches would grant female characters more abilities, but still not at all comparable to males.

* ''[[Disgaea]]''

* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]''

** A minor advantage for female characters in early editions is that some creatures have magic powers (mostly charm or beguiling) that works only on a specific gender, and those targeting males are more prevalent than the reverse. Thus, a woman would be immune to the influence of several feminine monsters (notably Kelpies, Nymphs, Nereids, Harpies...) while rarely the subject of such (like the hypnotic music of a satyr...). How much this would come into play depends entirely of the GM, of course.

*** Note that the sole ''male-only'' Prestige Class, found in the unofficial ''Book of Erotic Fantasy'' supplement, requires you to be ''castrated''.

**** There is another male-only prestige class. However it is in the often banned Dragon Magazine. Even if you do allow Dragon Mazagine, it is quickly outdone by the "Thrall of Malachant" class. Which gives you the power to turn into a succubus with advancing spell casting and brutal charisma powers, as well as the succubus's class energy drain attack. To compare, the male-only class is a melee class, in a game where anything not mage is considered under powered.

* ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]''

** Males have a higher physical attack stat, females have a higher magic attack stat. Because it's much harder to level up the magic attack (which is also [[Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards|more useful]]) stat than the physical attack stat females have an advantage.

** Females also have two powerful accessories exclusive to them: the "Ribbon", which negates all [[Standard Status Ailments]], and Chantage, which [[Nigh Invulnerability|gives the wearer persistent Reraise and Regen.]] (The only exception is Cloud, as a [[Shout-Out]] to his crossdressing subquest in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]''.) To top it all off, females cost slightly less to recruit (due to their initial equipment).

*** The "ribbons are for women only" mentality is fortunately [[Averted Trope|averted]] with the main series, where the designers have realized that if a male character was given the choice of either wearing a girly ribbon or dying horrifically because a plant [[Breath Weapon|breathed]] on him, he'd man up and put on his ribbon.

== Both Favored ==

=== Tabletop Games ===

 

 

* ''[[Pokémon]]''

** When breeding [[Pokémon]], the baby is always the same species as its mother, but may inherit moves from its father. Thus, it is preferred to use the limited-quantity Technical Machines on males, so that other Pokémon can inherit the move. TM moves in Generation V still kept their inheritance qualities even though Technical Machines gained infinite use, making this largely irrelevant.

** Though not an inherent weakness in gender, the general predominance of male Pokémon in battles gives females with "Attract" or "Cute Charm" a distinct seductive advantage. Of course, this can be inverted if a ''male'' Pokémon with those abilities is put up against a majority of ''female'' opponents. More of a Metagaming point, but due to the fact that most of the [[Character Tiers|upper-tier]] [[Mons]] with gender overwhelmingly favor being male, competitive battlers that use seduction abilities get more use out of females when using them. It's generally not given much attention due to how infrequent such builds are (plus the fact that, regardless of the gender in question, any one of the multiple [[No Biological Sex|genderless]] critters will stop the strategy cold).

** The girl version of ''Harvest Moon DS'' even allowed you to [[Gay Option|choose a female as a life partner]] and even be blessed by the Harvest Goddess with a child... [[Bowdlerize|in Japan]].

* ''[[Arcanum]]''

* ''[[Oracle of Tao]]'' has an interesting variation of this. The male version of this is played straight (for the most part) with the two warriors of the game, while females have more versatility. In the later game, with better levels and gear, men can come out ahead, especially with some of the combo attacks from weapons. Usually, though, physical attack is lacking due to weapon availability in the early game, while in terms of magical damage, it's just a matter of [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors]]. Also, most of the females (and [[Dude Looks Like a Lady|one very androgynous male]]) have the ability to wear dresses, most of which provide elemental protection not found on heavy armor. Worse, many of the females can ''also'' wear heavy armor and use swords. So this would be technically a female-biased game, despite the advantages. The solution for male characters? [[Wig, Dress, Accent|Disguising yourself as a girl in a changing room, and then putting on the female armor.]] Doing this suddenly makes the game male-biased (if you can still call it that), since now they have the decent attacks, plus the decent armor.

* In ''[[3D Dot Game Heroes|Three D Dot Game Heroes]]'', males get extra sword power, and females get reduced casting cost for magic. Given how often you'll likely be casting the Freeze spell late in the game, this arguably gives males an initial advantage, and females a late-game advantage. And if you don't like it, you can change your gender any time you load a saved game.

* ''[[Mabinogi (video game)|Mabinogi]]'' seems to favor creation of a female character more near the beginning of the game mostly by giving women fancier clothes, such as one shop where 2/3 of the clothing are for women, and there's one monster-slaying quest which rewards you with a pair of woman's gloves, ''regardless of your gender''. Later on store options cycle between favoring men then favoring women again.

* In ''[[Sword of Mana]]'', playing as the male protagonist allows you to complete a sidequest chain that the female protagonist can't (as the area where you pick up the [[MacGuffin]] you need doesn't open up until an event where the heroine is briefly captured by the enemy, and the sidequest is [[Lost Forever]] once the story progresses). However, only the female protagonist can experience the full story and get to learn about the antagonists' motivations.